


Sunset

by jeannamarin



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: F/M, Graduation, Pre-Relationship, Slow Build, Tennis, Trans Character, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:51:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4873990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeannamarin/pseuds/jeannamarin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Momoshiro Takeshi is graduating high school in less than a week, Ryoma is begrudgingly affectionate, and Momo loses at tennis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunset

**Author's Note:**

> Ryoma is transfeminine in this fic - she began transitioning in middle school.

“Mada mada dane.” Ryoma lowers her racket and plants her hands on her hips. Across the court, Momoshiro is breathing hard, bracing himself on his knees. His racket lies on the ground, discarded when Ryoma decided to have mercy on him and end the volley she had been keeping them in for a good ten minutes. “I win again. Momo-chan-senpai.”

Momoshiro pulls a face at her before collapsing on the court, cheek pressed uncomfortably to the cooling pavement. “Echizen, you brat!” He fakes a sob, rolling onto his back and draping an arm over his eyes. “You couldn’t let your senpai win one match before he graduates high school forever?”

“No.” Ryoma’s voice is clipped; she’s probably embarrassed by his theatrics, like she always is. Momo smiles, and when he moves his arm and opens his eyes, Ryoma is standing over him and tapping her foot.

She always looks good when they’re playing, but she looks just as good after, sweat plastering her short hair to her forehead and cheeks and giving her skin a glow that’s enhanced by the setting sun.

Her abs ripple as she crouches down, tennis skirt creasing over her muscled thighs. She offers a tentative hand to him. “Momo-senpai. Did you hit your head or something?” Momoshiro realizes that there’s a dopey, fond grin on his face, and if he weren’t already sweaty and red he would blush.

“No, just thinking.” About you, he doesn’t say. 

That Echizen, he thinks, and seizes her hand.  
\--  
They shower together like they always have, Momoshiro slapping wet hands onto Echizen’s sides (and catching her when she slips) and throwing soap suds at her while her back is turned. It’s long past the point of tennis practice being over, so Ryoma can sidle casually into the men’s bathroom without anyone pointing an accusing finger at her.

Momoshiro used to think it was weird, when he was a middle schooler, that Ryoma would want to shower with her male teammates even after she started her transition. That was before he realized that the buffer of the tennis team kept her safer no matter which bathroom she used.

Even after her chest started to grow in and she had had a couple surgeries, Ryoma still followed Momo into the same locker room whenever they stayed late after practice. Momo realizes with a fearful twinge that after he graduates, Echizen will be on her own.

Not exactly true - there’s Horio, Kachiro and Mizuno, and Ryoma has always been capable of looking out for herself. She was always the one standing up to bullies on someone else’s behalf, not the other way around.  
He realizes he’s been staring at her while absently rubbing his shoulder with a washcloth, that dumb expression on his face again.

Ryoma has stopped scrubbing herself down, face half-turned away from Momo even though her body hasn’t moved an inch. There’s a flush spreading down her neck and chest, though, and a tremor in the hands that rub lazily through her hair.

“I was thinking,” he says, without being prompted for explanation, “that it’s gonna suck for you when I graduate.” He can say things like that to Ryoma, imply attachment without getting a glare (usually).

“You aren’t going that far,” Ryoma turns off the water, “I’ll visit.”

“You’re going to bike ten miles just to see me? Echizen, I’m fla-”

“I’m getting my license soon,” her voice is gruff and annoyed, and they fall back into their comfortable banter as they towel off and get dressed.  
\--  
Later, when Momoshiro bikes her home, he offers her his sport’s jacket, as if she didn’t have one of her own in the bag at her hip.

She takes it anyway, shrugging it over her bare shoulders - the floral, off the shoulder top was one of Momo’s favorites - and hops onto the back of his bike, like always.

She spends the whole ride with her hot cheek pressed against his ear.

He takes twice as long to get to Echizen’s house, but she doesn’t complain.


End file.
